594 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXII. 
be ; and it probably is not Dr. Packard’s; or if it is, he has not had 
the time to attempt such a complete digestion of the mass of obser- 
vations and theories which he has had before him; and the matter 
of time is an influencing one in almost all work. 
Dr. Packard’s text-book need not be compared with similar ones 
in other languages, because there is no other one which at all ap- 
proaches it in comprehensiveness or construction. Kolbe’s Æinfüh- 
rung in der Kenntniss der Insekten does not touch embryology nor 
post-embryonal development, nor hardly physiology ; Camerano’s 
Anatomia degli Insetti is insignificant ; Lowne’s Blow/ly and Miall 
and Denny’s Cockroach are of a different type, and one lacks author- 
ity while the other is old. Dr. Packard’s is the one book covering 
the field of its subject, and it becomes at once the authoritative text. 
It will be unnecessary to call attention to details of the book’s con- 
struction. The logical arrangement and sequence of subjects, the 
wealth of illustration, the full lists of well-selected references, and 
the complete index are noticeably good features.. The author is a 
veteran bookmaker and understands the importance of caring for the 
convenience of the book-user. The publishers have admirably 
aided the author in making the book usable, and have put it into 
substantial and pleasing form. The type-face is large and clean, 
and the “style ”?” characteristically good. 
The book is indispensable to teachers of entomology and zoology 
and to students of insect morphology and development. Whether it 
will be extensively used in “ agricultural and technical schools and 
colleges,” is a matter to be determined by time. There is no doubt 
that it ought to be so used, and cannot fail, in any case, to help better 
the opinion entertained by foreign scholars of American biology. 
Zodlogists and entomologists are under real obligations to Professor 
Packard for the material aid he has given them in writing the book. 
G. 
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA. VERNON L. KELLOG 
Faune de France.! — This is a convenient handbook for the pur- 
pose of the determination of the insects of France. It treats of all 
of the orders of this class except the Coleoptera, which form the 
subject of an earlier volume. It consists entirely of analytical tables. 
These include all of the genera represented in France; and, excep 
in the case of a few families, tables of species are also given. The 
1Aclogue, A. Faune de France. Patis, J. B. Bailliere et Fils, 1897. 12m0, 
516 pp., with 1235 figs. 
